Allies of a Darker Nature
by the madcap magician
Summary: What would you do if your countries greatest military secret is about to be revealed to the whole world? SG1, still mourning the death of Dr Janet Frasier have to deal with the threat posed by what a little knowledge can do in the hands of a supposed ally
1. Chapter 1

**AN/ **Set shortly after 'heroes' this story deals with the feelings of loss after the death of Dr Frasier, and the threat posed by what a little knowledge can do in the hands of a supposed ally.

**Chapter one**

Having served his country for more years than he cared to count, in a unending succession of blighted, war torn countries, Jack O'Neill had learned long ago to listen to his 'inner voice'. Fighter pilots described it as situational awareness, paranormals called it a sixth sense, O'Neill simply called it his trouble bump, and right now it was telling him that he was about to have visitors. And the very last thing O'Neill wanted right now was visitors.

It had only been a week since he had taken a staff weapon blast to the chest, and lost a close friend in the process, although his bruises and cracked ribs were on their way to healing, it would take longer for the emotional wounds to be healed.

The rest of his SG-1 team were still on duty, although unlikely to go off-world on a mission as a team until he recovered. Daniel was up to his over educated eyeballs in his lab trying to track down the location of the lost city, Carter was working on some high energy weapon do-hickey meant to replace the missiles on the X-303, apparently another of Felgar's madcap ideas. Teal'c, well Teal'c being his poker faced self had not given anything away, but Jack suspected he might visit his son.

Sighing deeply, O'Neill stood up and placed the fishing rod down on the jetty beside his chair. Then after a quick stretch to ease the muscles that seemed to need little excuse to ache these days, he headed up the creaking jetty towards the small wood cabin set back in the trees lining the shoreline. He had gotten about half-way up the jetty when the sound reached him, it took but a moment to identify the direction the sound emanated from and turn to face it.

Thus O'Neill caught sight of one of the US military's more unusual vehicles as it climbed over the trees on the far side of the lake, the large aircraft had a high wing mounted on its fuselage, ending with a large engine boom and a three bladed propeller on either side. The blades were far larger than any conventional aircraft, and it seemed to the watching O'Neill that it cleared the far trees by inches. The pilot made a slight course correction and now made straight for O'Neill's cabin on the far shore, and as the aircraft accelerated over the lake it now appeared to be touching the water in places.

Assuming that the pilot would head for the open meadow behind the cabin, O'Neill continued up the jetty, but a change in engine sound made him turn back. The MV-22 Osprey Tilt rotor was undergoing the change that made the aircraft so unique, the two huge engine pods were tilting up and away from the horizontal, changing the Osprey from a conventional aircraft into its helicopter configuration. The aircraft was so close now that O'Neill could see the two pilots, wearing their advanced helmets making them look like giant insects.

As it approached, the aircraft appeared to enter a tail-end skid, and with an impressive display of skill the pilot spun the aircraft about 180 degrees without losing any forward speed, so now the Osprey was approaching O'Neill backwards at some speed. O'Neill took a step backwards despite himself and like the highly trained warrior he was, began to evaluate escape options, in a split second he had narrowed his options down to diving into the lake, should the pilot misjudge his approach.

But the aircraft was slowing, and as he watched, the rear hatch swung down, revealing a huge bear of a Marine loadmaster wearing a flight helmet, he strode nonchalantly out onto the ramp and leaned out over the lake. Speaking into the helmet mike he began directing the pilot backwards, and suddenly O'Neill realised what the pilot intended, he was going to place the ramp over the wooden jetty while remaining in a hover, considering he could not even see where the back of the aircraft was it required a seriously gutsy piece of flying.

The down draft from the massive twin rotors blew the chair and fishing rod off the jetty and into the lake, and mentally O'Neill began to compose the claim he would submit to the admin office at the next opportunity, which of course they would turn down, budget cuts and all, but that didn't mean he wouldn't submit it. It kept the office weenies on their toes.

The Osprey drifted to a halt inches short of the jetty, and the Marine loadmaster removed his helmet and nonchalantly stepped out of the aircraft, onto the jetty, he approached O'Neill at a trot.

"Colonel O'Neill?"

The Marine had to bellow to be heard over the sound of the massive engines, Jack nodded in response.

"Sir, General Hammond has requested your presence at The Mountain ASAP"

As he spoke he had laid a hand on Jack's arm, leaving Jack no option but to follow the loadmaster guiding him towards the waiting aircraft.

"So I guess the fishing is off?"

Before Jack could make another wisecrack he found himself aboard the aircraft being secured into a bucket seat along the fuselage wall. And by the time Jack had turned to look out of the window the ramp had been raised, and the waters of the lake were speeding past as the Osprey transitioned back into airplane mode and accelerated. Whatever the emergency, there was no point worrying about it until he spoke to General Hammond, so with a skill honed over many years of soldiering, O'Neill was asleep by the time the Osprey climbed over the trees at the far side of the lake, and snoring long before the aircraft reached its maximum speed of 510km/h.

OoOoO

With stealth bordering on the supernatural, the four camouflaged shapes flitted from tree to tree like some form of medieval forest sprits. Major Coburn paused and sank to one knee behind a tree, without having to look, he knew his team had gone to ground around him. With his weapon pressed into his shoulder, he scanned the edge of the clearing, and wherever his eyes went so did the barrel of his M4 assault rifle, after all there was no point spotting trouble if he wasn't prepared to do something about it.

After scanning with the naked eye he scanned the clearing with his weapon's X4 magnification sight just in case he had missed something, but if there was trouble out there he couldn't spot it. Satisfied for the moment, he took his right hand off his weapons pistol grip and lifting it over the weapon so it was visible from both sides, motioned the team forward. All four rose in unison and moved forward at a crouch to the edge of the clearing, the sight which greeted them although not a surprise, because of a UAV over flight, still made for grim viewing.

In the clearing scattered to the four winds, lay approximately 25 Jaffa bearing the markings of the system lord named Yu. They appeared to have been taken by surprise, a hard task at the best of times, Coburn knew from hours of unarmed combat sparring that he would have to be having an incredibly good day to catch the SGC's resident Jaffa Teal'c as unprepared as these had been. Roughly half of them had not even managed to reach their staff weapons.

Coburn was a career soldier, who took pride in being at the very top of his profession, and these Jaffa were his enemy, however he felt that there was something very distasteful in the scene in front of him, it hadn't been a combat, it had been a slaughter.

Moving cautiously forward to the first corpse, Coburn knelt and rolled the man over, and received the first of many surprises of the day. The Jaffa had died, not from a staff weapon blast or other alien energy weapon as he had been expecting, but from the impact from multiple solid projectiles. Well it was not completely unheard of for other cultures they had come across to have developed firearms similar to those used by the forces of the SGC, but Coburn was another who had developed a trouble bump, and right now it was screaming at him.

Pulling his combat knife from its sheathe on his thigh, he sliced away the Jaffa's leg covering from around one of the corpse's many wounds, and ignoring the fact he was mutilating a body, cut into the leg until he could lever out the solid slug. Washing off the blood with water from his canteen revealed what his trouble bump had been trying to tell him, it was a metallic bullet alright, but from what sort of weapon?

Putting the round in his top pocket, he looked around. His team had continued to do a perimeter sweep around the edge of the clearing, now his second in command, Lieutenant Rebecca Hadley was approaching him. Even through the well applied camouflage cream he could tell she was puzzled.

"What have you got?"

Like many of the SG team commanders Coburn allowed a certain degree of informality to develop in his team, it made for greater efficiency and made him more approachable as a leader.

"At the briefing, General Hammond did say we were the first SGC personnel on this rock didn't he?"

Coburn nodded, he also knew that Hadley had already known the answer, she had a photographic memory for what passed in the briefings, a process he found mind numbing in the extreme, in fact more often than not he was asking her about such details.

"Well then how do you go about explaining this?" She held out her hand and dropped something into his palm.

At first Coburn thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, so confused was he that he removed a full magazine from one of his assault vest pockets and took the first round from the top and compared it to what he already held in his hand. It was a 5.56mm casing, exactly what would be ejected from his own weapon if he fired off a round. Flipping both items over he checked the batch numbers printed on the bases of both, they didn't match, but that didn't really mean anything, just that the spent casing was slightly older.

"We have found scores of them, I have bagged up several from each pile for analysis when we get back"

Coburn nodded and patted his subordinate on the arm, he rose and studied the scene from the fresh perspective that the new knowledge had given him, plotting where he would place people if he had been setting up this ambush.

"How many did it take do you think?"

Hadley's question echoed his own train of thought and not for the first time he told himself how lucky he was having this team, they were so meshed together that actions now had become instinctual.

"Not sure, but I wouldn't have tried it with less than sixteen men, or women"

Coburn added with a smile.

A shout to his left snapped his head around, one of his other team members Sergeant Nixon was waving at him from across the clearing. Coburn trotted over with Hadley on his heels. Nixon was standing pointing down at a patch of earth when they arrived.

"Combat boots sir! Not Airforce or Marine issue, but combat boots all the same"

Coburn looked down at the imprint, and found he had to agree with Sergeants assessment, the pattern was clearly of Earth origin.

"Have you got it on film"

At the sergeant's nod Coburn cocked his head at the clearing behind him.

"Go film our friends out there, pick out a suitable candidate for a post mortem, then we are going to cut short our mission, I think General Hammond needs to know that we have a group of non SGC personnel running around out here, my moneys on those NID bastards again".

Coburn didn't know how wrong he would prove to be.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

At the knock on the frame of his open door, General George Hammond looked up from the report he had been reading. He of course already knew who would be there, after all one of the things that came with commanding the most secret installation on the planet was that no-one got inside his domain using terrestrial methods without his knowledge or express permission, even the soon to be outgoing president had to ask to come in.

His Lanky second in command Jack O'Neill was leaning up against the frame, he was still wearing his fishing jacket, the one with all the lures sticking in it, which when you considered there were no fish in the lake he fished in, seemed like a waste of time.

Perched in its usual place atop his head was the long serving green baseball cap that Jack had worn for as long as Hammond had known him, lately it had begun to look extremely worn. Hammond, while not encouraging it, was aware of a book being run by SSgt Walter Davies in the control room, taking bets on what the sharp tongued O'Neill would do when the cap finally fell apart, and Sgt Siler had placed five bucks on O'Neill burying the cap with full military honours, then retiring, again!

The armed forces had regulations that covered just about every eventuality, from personal turnout, haircuts to how you address your superiors, at some time or other Jack O'Neill had bent or just outright broken all of them. The only reason he had not been encouraged to resign his commission long before now was that he was exceptionally talented in the area of small unit tactics, that and the fact that in the past a younger O'Neill had saved the outgoing president's life in circumstances that were classified even to Hammond.

Hammond had taken an intense dislike to the man on their first meeting, but had since then he had been given more than enough reason to radically revise that opinion, he had thought O'Neill was being disrespectful to him, where in actual fact O'Neill was just being O'Neill.

"Whatya got General?"

With a motion of his hand Hammond waved him in indicated he should take a seat, the Colonel folded himself into one of the two seats across the desk from him.

"Here, read this Jack"

Hammond tossed the folder he had been reading across the desk to O'Neill, who deftly caught it in midair and opened it. The folder was covered in red tape and writing stating the contents were top secret, which when you considered that even the lunch menu in the SGC was classified didn't of itself mean much of anything. Because, although the jello in the SGC was great, and one of Teal'c's particular favourites, Jack didn't think it presented a national security risk.

Inside was a page of typed words and a picture, not a normal picture, but a high definition satellite image. O'Neill suddenly realised he had not seen one of these since he had joined the SGC, after all there no surveillance satellites in orbit of the worlds his team visited.

Down the side of the picture was a series of figures that displayed the GPS co-ordinates of the area encompassed by the picture, he recognised the numbers instantly. As a young officer he had spent several months on detachment to the Special Forces command based in Great Britain, and the numbers on the satellite image had started resonating in O'Neill's mind.

No-one would ever get away with calling O'Neill a sharp intellect, in seven years and despite Carter's many attempts at explanation, he'd never gotten his head around how the Stargate's wormhole didn't actually involve worms. So when a thought got started in his head it tended to bounce around for a while before he noticed it. So it was round about this point his trouble bump started screaming at him. The numbers corresponded to an area in the South East of England. The picture showed what appeared to be a Gou'ald transport ship lying on its side in a field, having cut a long furrow across the pasture that was nearly 200 metres long.

"Damn it Jacob! Can't you ever just land these things?"

Jack remembered the time Jacob and Daniel had been shot down trying to rescue the rest of the team from a destroyed Tok'ra base, in fact this was the very same scout vessel.

"What happened General?"

Hammond took the folder back and placed it before him on the table.

"Jacob, as you know has been trying, without much success I might add, to muster support among the Tok'ra high council in order to reinstate our treaty"

Hammond saw the look that passed over Jack's face, knew and echoed the man's feeling on the subject of the Tok'ra.

"Any way, he requested the use of our scout ship and Major Carter asked to accompany him, given recent events I thought she needed the time away".

"Geez, what she'll do to get out of going fishing with me!"

Jack had been concerned about Sam Carter, other than Daniel Jackson she had taken the recent death of Janet Frasier hardest of all his team. While he had lost a valuable officer and a friend, Sam had lost more, Janet had been an equal who she could discus anything with, and expect some wise advise in return, someone who could share the stresses and pressures of the unusual job they did. Jack had always used Daniel, and then Jonas, then Daniel again, as his pressure valve, while Sam had used Janet.

"During their mission they came under attack from a flight of death gliders and took damage, they managed to make it back here, but were unable to control their descent, hence the predicament we find ourselves in"

"Yeah, the ship is going to stick out in its present location, the British are going to have a cow, I know they have been told about the Gate and Prometheus"

Jack still preferred to have called her Enterprise.

"but knowing about something, and having it crash on your doorstep are two completely different things, do we want them to get their hands on this sort of technology?"

Hammond shook his head,

"And that is why you will travelling over there immediately, your orders are to destroy the vessel by any means necessary, avoiding friendly causalities if at all possible, also locate our people and secure their release"

Hammond still referred to Jacob Carter as one of his own, and despite his snake, so did O'Neill.

"Wonderful, back to jolly old England for a spot of tea and crumpets"

Before Hammond could add anything, there was a familiar sound from the world outside his office, the Stargate was spinning, and a chevron glowed red and locked into place.

"Unscheduled off world activation!"

SSgt Davies's voice blared from the speaker, both Hammond and O'Neill rose and made their way into the briefing room and down the winding stairs into the control room, the fifth chevron had already locked as they got there. The gate room security team was already in place well before the seventh chevron glowed red and locked. There were a few tension filled seconds until Davies turned his head to look at Hammond,

"Sir, receiving an IDC code, its SG7"

"Open the iris!" Hammond turned to O'Neill "Major Coburn's team were not due back until tomorrow!"

With the event horizon of the worm hole uncovered it was only seconds until Major Thomas Coburn stepped into view, followed by the rest of his team, as the worm hole snapped off Coburn handed his equipment off to Rebecca Hadley and walked out of the door to the right that led to the Corridor outside the control room. He quickly reappeared trotting up the stairs into the control room, he halted before Hammond and saluted.

"General, we may have a big problem!"

O'Neill groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Come on Coburn! From past experience do we ever actually have small problems around here?"

OoOoO

The regimented tramp of heavily booted feet told the waiting men everything they needed to know about the identity of the intruders, even if the scouts had not been tracking them since they had crossed the borders, the sound of them crashing through the forest was proof enough of their location. The newcomers called themselves Jaffa, and they had first appeared three weeks before, stepping through the Holy Portal, bringing death and destruction with them, they had quickly destroyed any opposition near the portal, and were now pushing outwards. Now they had reached the estates belonging to Kyle, and he was damned if he was going to give up his land without a fight.

From where he lay in the undergrowth off to one side of the trail, Kyle glanced at the men lying around him, nearly all of them had served his father in the household guard since long before his birth. Instead of the armour and house tabard they normally each wore, they were all dressed in rough tunics and battered armour, so even if they were taken the Jaffa would have no clue as to which house they belonged. The man to his right fidgeted nervously and adjusted his armour, Duncan was the only man in the group less experienced than Kyle, reaching over, Kyle gave the lad a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, the youth looked up and smiled at the young nobleman.

Kyle took a deep breathe, and slowly and carefully drew himself up behind a tree, the crossbow a welcome weight in his hands, the sound of the intruders was much closer now, only moments from passing his position. For a split second Kyle considered calling off the attack and leading his men back into the woods, he was still relatively new to his position of leadership, and still had doubts about his own abilities. But at the back of his mind he could hear his mentor Kurt chiding him for his fears, Kurt lay concealed and out of reach on the other side of the trail, commanding the second half of Kyle's troops, between them they had fifty men at their disposal.

Taking a deep breathe and holding it in, Kyle stepped out from behind the tree, bringing the crossbow up to his shoulder and into line with one of the strangely armoured men, for a moment the two men's eyes met, then Kyle pulled the trigger, sending the metal bolt into the strangers forehead. All around him Kyle was aware of his men exploding from the undergrowth, screaming battle cries, then there was no further need for leadership, now it was everyman for themselves.

Without time to load another bolt, Kyle swung the crossbow into the midriff of the nearest Jaffa, as the man doubled up he brought the now twisted bow down on the man's head. Stepping back, Kyle let the man fall past him, giving him the space he needed to draw his sword, the Jaffa, stunned by the initial assault were now starting to recover and were trying to bring their fire sticks into use. They were fearsome weapons, delivering blasts of fire at ranges beyond that of the finest archers, yet in close they were cumbersome weapons, long and unwieldy, which allowed Kyle to seize an advantage.

Throwing himself into the space in the file created by the felling of two enemies, Kyle swung his sword in a glittering deadly arc, taking another Jaffa in the neck, using his momentum from the swing Kyle pivoted on his toes and in one fluid motion turned and thrust his sword into the back of an Jaffa who was in the process of aiming his firestick at one of Kyle's men, the Jaffa screamed before collapsing to his knees. Pulling his blade clear, he swung at another warrior, only to have the blow parried away by the fire stick, regaining his balance Kyle advanced again, not giving his opponent room to bring the fire stick into line with his body. Kyle felt a blow to the back of his knees and collapsed backwards, as he hit the floor he heard the distinctive sound of a fire stick at close range and felt the heat as the blast went over his head.

Later, sat around the fire with Kurt he replayed the battle and pieced together what at the time had seemed so strange. The man whose back into which he had thrust his sword had not died, and had struck him across the knees unwittingly saving his life. Had he not fell, another of the intruders would have slain him with a blast from his firestick, instead the blast took the life of the warrior who had parried his attack.

From the position, on his back, Kyle drew the throwing knife from its sheathe in his boot, the Jaffa with his firestick crackling with suppressed energy in his hands was advancing to try and get a clear shot, Kyle drew back his arm and let fly with the knife. It took the warrior in the throat, just above the breast plate, unfortunately it hit hilt first, and apart from startling the warrior and hurting his pride, it caused no other effect. The firestick was levelled at his chest, and Kyle resigned himself to the fiery blast that was coming.

But no blast came, instead the Jaffa's face took on a puzzled expression and he slowly toppled forward to lay face down on the trail, Duncan stood behind him with a bloody sword raised ready in case another blow was required. Pulling himself back to his feet, Kyle took a look around, only his men remained standing, but not all of them, about a dozen lay unmoving, while another half dozen moaned and cried out in pain. With a hand gesture Kyle directed men to aid the wounded. Kyle bent down and retrieved his weapons, and slid them home into their sheathes, he also found his crossbow, but it was damaged beyond repair, so in disgust he tossed it back to the floor.

"Two got away, the scouts are pursuing them"

Kurt had come up silently behind him, he was blood splattered and breathing heavily, his thinning white hair plastered by sweat, for the first time Kyle realised his man-at-arms was actually nearly seventy years old, and had started service with Kyle's grandfather.

He was the oldest man in service to Kyle's household, his skill with a blade was only surpassed by his skill as a teacher, he had instructed Kyle from the moment the five year old had gotten his first wooden practise blade. Kurt was the household war leader, in war time it was his task to advise the ruling lord in all matters of warfare, and to lead the troops in battle, however Kyle was not the sort to sit back in his halls and let others fight his battles for him, he had been taught by the best and he would ask no man to do what he was not willing to do himself.

In the distance a horn sounded, and not a horn used by the troops of the Kingdom, it made a strange unsettling sound that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, a second horn answered with the same tone, but this one much nearer. Quickly taking a last look around to ensure nothing had been forgotten, Kyle waved his hand in a circle above his head.

"Back to the horses, leave the dead, we don't have time to carry them with us, we must be gone from here before we are discovered!"

Without a further word the soldiers picked up the wounded and without a backward glance faded back into the trees.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

The SR-71 Blackbird roared across the sky like an angry god, but at a height of 80,000ft, where you were closer to space than you were to the Earth, even at an unbelievable speed of mach 3.5 it was a peaceful, even serene place to be. Wearing what amounted to a spacesuit rather than a more traditional flight suit, the engine sounds from the two J58 turbojets each throwing out over 60,000 pounds of thrust, were felt in the bones, rather than heard.

Glancing down out of the cockpit, Jack could see the clouds seeming to drift past far below him, the curvature of the earth was out of his sight, but far ahead he could see the day/night terminator line, and he was gaining on it! It took some getting used to, flying so fast you were outrunning the planet!

The SR-71 photographic reconnaissance aircraft had been retired in 1990, and replaced by the super secret Aurora, officially, only NASA kept one operational for flight tests, unofficially you would be surprised what happened when a 2 star General made a phone call with the President's backing.

Jack had been airborne only an hour but he was already nearly half way across the Atlantic heading for the Irish coast on his way to RAF Mildenhall in Norfolk, England, although it was a base belonging to the Royal Air Force it was leased to the American government, and only US squadrons operated from it.

Another plus point was that the Blackbird had operated from the base before its retirement, so facilities were already in place to handle the gigantic aircraft. It would of course have been faster to pilot one of the growing number of X-302s, but it would be that much more difficult to explain landing it at Mildenhall, the SR-71 was going to raise enough eyebrows as it was.

Jack of course didn't really have much of a plan for what he would do once he got there, his orders were open to the widest interpretation, it all depended on what he found on his arrival, despite the crashed ship, most of his thoughts lingered on Jacob and of course Samantha Carter. He knew that both were the most capable of individuals, and if anyone could have come out of this in one piece it was those two, however his mind kept pulling him back to the satellite picture of the crashed ship, and the pieces strewn across the English countryside.

A lot had changed over the last seven years, but one of the constants in his life was Samantha Carter, he had come to depend on her possibly more than any other officer in his long career, and although perhaps once he had harboured feelings for her, he now thought of her as a sister he had never had.

Besides he was happy she seemed smitten with the police officer she had been spending time with, he knew this because she kept breaking out into spontaneous bouts of humming and smiling, even when she wasn't talking about quarks and spatial rifts. Now all that had changed of course, with Janet's death Sam had withdrawn into herself, in all their years together only Daniel's ascension had hurt her as deeply and all her friends were worried.

Which was why Jack had had no problems with her going off and aiding Jacob, sometime alone with her father might have been just what the doctor ordered (that sounded sick, even in Jack's mind) and help her get over her loss. Now of course with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight Jack knew he should never have let her go, but what had happened had happened unless you talk about time travel of course, and that subject, like the mechanics of gate travel, made his head really hurt.

He suddenly remembered he had forgotten something vital, he hadn't set his VCR to tape the Simpson's! Surely the Brits would have the Simpson's, they weren't that backward! Pushing the irrelevant thought from his mind (it took some doing) Jack began to go over the mission in his head, the only advantage he had was a Zat tucked into his survival gear, that and the C4 for destroying the ship, assuming it hadn't already been moved upon his arrival, there were far too many 'what ifs', Jack hated missions like this, the more 'what ifs' the more chance he'd end up in the infirmary, again!

OoOoO

Dr Daniel Jackson flinched slightly as the collapsed stone wall behind which he was sheltering took a concentrated burst of staff weapon fire, he had only caught a quick glimpse of the Jaffa of Anubis as they had emerged from the far tree line firing their staff weapons from the hip, but from the look that had crossed the face of Captain Cassidy Coates, Daniel guessed that there were a lot of them.

Another burst of fire smashed into the other side of the wall, sending razor sharp shards of stone flying in all directions. Coates swore, and Daniel glanced over at her, she had steadied herself against the wall and was returning fire in short, controlled bursts from her P90. One of the stone fragments had buried itself in her cheek, and blood was flowing freely down her face.

"You're bleeding!"

Coates ducked back into cover and looked over at Jackson, she gave him a little grin.

"Sorry Doc, I have no time to bleed, kind of busy right now"

While she was talking, her hands moved fast with practised ease, stripping the empty magazine from the top of the weapon, pulling a fresh one from her webbing and snapping it into place. Reaching up to her radio pouch, she pressed the transmit button

"Ok guys its Cass, what's your status, sound off".

The radio was silent for a moment before crackling into life

"Cass, its Mac, I have Joe and Denny here with me, we're pinned down within sight of the gate, we cannot get to the DHD to dial home!"

"Ok, sit tight guys, keep your heads down" Coates looked over again at Jackson, "I guess we're not going anywhere for the moment, any suggestions?"

A lot had changed since Daniel had started at the SGC, he had gone from barely tolerated science geek, to a respected and combat experienced veteran, for someone who did not come from a military background, he had nevertheless been in enough scrapes to have picked up a thing or two along the way. Jack O'Neill's military expertise was rubbing off on him, just as Jack was always loudly complaining that Daniel's conscience was rubbing off on him.

"Well I could always say I'm the great and powerful Oz, and ask them to go away, but since it didn't work the first time, I'm not so convinced they'll listen!"

Coates snorted with humour, and went back to firing her weapon over the wall.

Daniel studied her for a moment, although she had joined the SGC during that first year as a newly minted Lieutenant straight from Special Forces training, he had spent virtually no time in her company, and had never been off world with her team.

He had known her barely well enough to say hi to in the corridors of the SGC, Daniel remembered the longest exchange they had shared, it had been at one of General Hammond's informal Barbeques, at which several teams had played an adhoc street hockey tournament, SG1 had played her SG9 in the final.

She had body blocked him on the way to scoring the winning goal, and had come back to help him up. "You ok Doc?"

"Oh fine, nothing but bruised pride and a bruised arse, don't suppose you have any ice?" She had laughed, reached down clasped his arm and hauled him to his feet. Teal'c, Daniel remembered, had not spoken to him for a week after the game. Daniel had not spent more than a few minutes in her company since.

In the week he had been working off world with her team he had immediately taken to her informality and incredibly dry sense of humour, like a female version of Jack O'Neill, right down to her love of the Simpson's and the apparent trouble she had grasping the simplest scientific concept.

But after all the time with Jack, both he and Sam had learned how to put the technical stuff into the most basic layman's terms, it amused Daniel that all the Special Forces types working for the SGC used lasers, explosives and electronics on a daily basis, but mention quantum physics or alien technology and you could almost see their eyes glazing over and their brains rejecting the information.

Daniel shook his head and refocused on their situation, he pulled his Zat from the holster on his thigh and pressed the activation button snapping the weapon into its firing position, he was just shifting position so he could add his contribution to the defence, when he caught movement from the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he saw the first Jaffa coming around the edge of the ruins, the staff weapon began to turn towards him. Daniel reacted instinctively and dropped flat onto his back just as the Jaffa fired, the blast hitting the wall where he had been sheltering.

Before Daniel could return fire with his Zat, Cassidy had pivoted about and shifted her point of aim, drilling a short burst from her P90 into the Jaffa's chest, blowing him from his feet, without even a pause she span back around and dropped a second Jaffa who had almost reached the ruined wall. From the sounds of movement in the ruins the first Jaffa had friends with him, damn sociable of him Daniel thought, suddenly their position had become untenable, and they both knew it. They had been outflanked, and were now in danger of being over run.

Daniel and Cassidy shared a glance, engaging in a kind of non-verbal communication that develops among those who have spent time in the metaphoric trenches. Reaching down, Coates pulled her service pistol from the holster on her thigh and offered it to Daniel pistol grip first.

"You're going to have to cover me!"

Daniel nodded and took the proffered pistol, it was a Beretta, the standard issue pistol, a 9mm automatic with a 16 round magazine. Daniel cocked the weapon and readied it. Shrugging off her pack, Coates unzipped it and reached inside, she pulled out two objects that Daniel recognised as Claymores, he watched as she expertly placed them at the foot of the wall and began to prime them. Daniel heard sounds from the ruins, and wrenched his attention away from the female officer and raised both the Beretta and the Zat and waited.

He did not have to wait long. Five Jaffa emerged from the cover of the ruins, carrying Zats and staff weapons, Daniel didn't hesitate even a moment, energy blasts and 9mm bullets crisscrossed the open ground for what to Daniel seemed like minutes, but in actual fact could only have been mere seconds, and when silence fell the five Jaffa lay twisted and still, Daniel found himself still squeezing the trigger of a now empty pistol.

Coates leaned over and took the empty weapon from Daniel's shaking hand, she quickly removed the expended magazine and inserted a fresh one, before handing it back to him, she smiled

"You did good Doc, you did good"

Coates took two grenades from the front of her webbing, taking one in each hand she bent down and pulled the pins with her teeth, then spat them to the ground, holding down the spades, she glanced at Daniel.

"Ready to move?"

Daniel nodded and bunched his legs under him. Coates tossed one grenade over the wall they had been using as cover, and the other into the ruins from where the first Jaffa had appeared.

"Go Doc Go! Make for the tree line!"

Daniel was moving before she had finished speaking, arms and legs pumping hard, he had covered half the distance before the grenades detonated, sparing a quick look over his shoulder, Daniel saw part of the ruin collapsing, almost in slow motion, throwing up a huge cloud of dust.

In the first couple of years with the SGC the destruction of a ruin with such archaeological wealth would have sent him into a helpless rage, since then he had ascended to a higher plain of existence, helped blow up suns, and seen worlds destroyed, now it just left him feeling deeply sad. Besides, he had translated enough to know the ruins did not represent 'the lost city', another planet was off the SGC hit list.

After a final burst of covering fire, Cassidy Coates had turned and ran for the trees herself, pulling the detonator for the claymores from her jacket pocket, if they could only reach the slim safety provided by the trees then there was a chance they could slip away from the Jaffa and link up with rest of her team at the Stargate, then get the hell off this planet. Optimism had always run very strong in her family.

She had always been a runner, had always felt the need to feel the wind in her hair, she had represented the Air Force Academy during her time there, and despite his obvious fitness she was rapidly catching Dr Jackson. Then, unexpectedly, something reached up and grabbed her right calf in a vice like grip and threw her solidly spread-eagled to the ground, it knocked the wind right out of her, and for a second she lay there composing herself. Then the pain hit her, vast rolling waves of pain that forced a scream from between her clenched teeth.

Daniel could see safety reaching out for him and was actually starting to believe they might make it, then he heard the scream, it was all too familiar and cut right through him. Skidding to a halt, Daniel spun around knowing what he would find, seeing the prone Coates and the smoke still rising from her right leg, for once Daniel drew no comfort from being right.

Staff weapon fire was flashing all around him, blowing up huge clods of grass and earth, from the number, it seemed the pursuit was growing more determined by the minute. Cassidy looked at him and for a moment they shared a bond that forms between those that have shared combat and stress together, then she pulled herself together.

"Don't stop you fool, keep running!"

To Daniel's eternal shame he realised he had been considering doing just that, his sense of self preservation had been trying to get his legs moving without his minds consent. In his early days with the SGC, he would not have hesitated in seeking cover and letting the military types sort it out. But the past seven years had changed him, and he hesitated, in his mind he could hear Jack O'Neill clear as a bell. "We never leave our people behind Danny boy, not now, not ever!" His mind made up, the archaeologist suddenly burst into action, sprinting back to the wounded officer, he lay down wild covering fire with the Zat, and in a skid that would have made any major league baseball player proud, slid home beside Cassidy.

"I thought I told you to keep going?"

Her voice sounded no different from if they had been discussing the weather over coffee in the SGC cafeteria, Daniel envied her such cool, his whole body was on the verge of some kind of fit while she was collected enough to be dressing her own wound.

"And leave you to have all the fun, not a chance!"

Taking a two handed shooting posture over her prone body, Daniel dropped one of the Jaffa with three rounds from the Beretta. There were about twenty Jaffa still on their feet, and wisely now that the two humans were in the open, they had taken cover in what was left of the ruins.

"Well now you're here, lets get the party started. Fire in the hole!"

Daniel looked at Cassidy in puzzlement, then looked to the detonator in her hand and remembered the claymores, he threw himself flat as the first one went off right in the midst of the Jaffa, the second claymore was just as devastating as the first, the 500 ball bearings packed into the claymores explosive having a terrifying effect on the Jaffa at such close range.

Taking advantage of the confusion and mayhem caused by the weapons, Daniel stood and grabbing hold of Cassidy's webbing hauled her to her feet ignoring the moans escaping from her clamped teeth. Supporting her weight, he half carried half dragged her back towards the trees. They had just reached cover as the staff weapon fire started again, throwing themselves down they readied themselves to engage the surviving Jaffa, there were only ten of them left now, but they had lost none of their vigour in the pursuit.

"Ten, that's not so bad, we can take them Doc"

Daniel just looked at her, she seemed almost hyper and Daniel suspected she was going into shock, five to one odds were not exactly favourable, but on the plus side he had faced worse, he nodded, taking another fresh Beretta magazine from her and ejecting the spent one.

"I'll start right, you start left and we meet in the middle"

Daniel nodded again and carefully drew bead on the far left Jaffa. But before he could gently squeeze the trigger just as Jack had taught him, something quite unexpected happened.

In a stunning crescendo the tree line to their right erupted in gunfire, not the automatic weapon fire Daniel was used to, but single shots fired in rapid succession, blending together to make an solid wall of sound, turning his head Daniel saw the Jaffa twisting and jerking under the savage onslaught, within seconds none remained upright or in any position to return fire.

The firing stopped, and for a moment an unnatural silence fell upon the tableau, the sound of magazines being changed and weapons made ready again drifted to Daniel's ears.

"Clear!"

several other voices began to chorus the same word from hidden positions in the trees. Several camouflaged forms emerged from the trees, they moved forward in a strange half crouch, crablike motion, weapons held ready for instant action. They approached the fallen Jaffa, and working in pairs began to search the bodies, Daniel was stunned when the occasional shot rung out when a live Jaffa was found, He was just about to open his mouth to protest when a shadow fell across him.

A man wearing an unusual forest camouflage uniform with his face covered in camouflage cream was standing over him, how he had managed to get so close without Daniel hearing him was simply beyond him. The man was carrying an M16 with an under slung grenade launcher, and while the barrel was not quite pointed in his direction, Daniel knew it would take the smallest of movements to bring it into line with him. Another man had appeared above Cassidy.

"What the hell?"

Cassidy shouted with indignity as a rough pair of hands removed her P90, Daniel had his Zat and Cassidy's Beretta taken from him also. One of the camouflaged men squatted down in front of them, placing his weapons butt on the ground and leaning on it. Up close Daniel was certain that the camouflage pattern the men were wearing was different from any he had ever seen worn at the SGC, including that of the Russian team.

"If you know what's good for you miss, I suggest you shut your mouth right now!"

Then something exploded in Daniel's mind, it suddenly occurred to him what was wrong with this picture, the accents, the uniforms, these men were British!


End file.
